This invention relates generally to firearm control systems, and more particularly to such a system in which the firearm is normally enabled for firing, but is disabled by the system in response to signals sent by the authorized user from a remote transmitter worn by the user to a receiver located in the firearm.
Persons, such as police officers, security guards and correctional facility officers (i.e., generally "peace officers"), typically carry a firearm, such as a handgun, shotgun or rifle, for their own protection and for the protection of others. These people constantly face the risk of a confrontation or a physical altercation arising with someone such as an assailant in which the officer's firearm is involuntary wrested away from the officer, or the officer is forced, under duress, to hand the officer's firearm over to the assailant. The officer then faces the risk that the officer's own firearm will be used against the officer to wound or kill the officer and/or others.
Apart from the aforedescribed situations in which the officer may be shot by the officer's own gun through the intentional acts of others, situations occur where the officer could inadvertently shoot himself/herself with the officer's own firearm through acts of carelessness.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a control system for a firearm in which the firearm is normally enabled for firing at all times by the officer, except when the firearm is pointed at the officer either with the firearm held by the officer or held by an assailant who has taken possession of the firearm from the officer.
The prior art is replete with firearm control systems of various types. However, all of these systems can be generally placed into two categories: firstly, those which keep the firearm normally disabled and require some means, such as the establishment of a valid communications link, to enable the firearm; and, secondly, those which keep the firearm normally enabled and by some means the firearm is disabled in certain situations.
In general, a primary shortcoming with the normally-disabled type of firearm control system relates to the requirement that the firearm, when carried by peace officers, be capable of immediate usage by the officer; for example, when the officer is threatened by an advancing armed assailant. In such situations, because time is of the essence, it is impractical to require the officer to perform an affirmative act, such as pressing a button on a transmitter, to enable the firearm.
However, there exist firearm control systems in the prior art that enable a normally-disabled firearm merely by requiring the firearm to be within a predetermined distance or range (such as twelve inches) from an active or passive device worn by the officer. In this way, a valid communication link is automatically established without action on the part of the officer. Then, if the officer is threatened with the officer's gun, the gun cannot be fired as long as the gun is beyond the distance required to establish the communication link. Yet this system is not foolproof since often the assailant may hold the officer's gun within the range required to establish the link.
Another concern with this normally-disabled system arises when there is a failure of the means that enables the firearm. If the failure occurs at a critical time when the officer needs the firearm to be enabled to be fired (for example, to stop an advancing armed or knife-wielding assailant), then the officer's firearm is essentially useless. However, fail-safe means may be provided to enable the firearm to be fired upon failure of the firearm control system. Yet, if the firearm is then wrested away from the officer, there is then no means to prevent the officer from being shot by the officer's own gun.
Examples of prior art normally-disabled firearm control systems are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,067,132, 5,168,114, 4,970,819, 5,068,989, 5,123,193, 5,062,232, 5,022,175, 5,016,376, 4,488,370, 4,467,545, 4,154,014, 4,135,320, 4,105,885, 4,003,152 and 3,939,679; all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
On the other hand, with respect to a normally-enabled firearm control system, prior art systems normally require an affirmative act on the part of the officer (such as depressing a button to deactivate a transmitter) to disable the firearm. Again, in situations where time is of the essence, it may be impractical to require the officer to perform such an affirmative act. Also, the officer may have the officer's gun taken away after the assailant has incapacitated or knocked the officer unconscious. Thus, there is no way the officer could perform the affirmative act of disabling the firearm.
Examples of prior art normally-enabled firearm control systems are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,563,827 and 4,682,435; both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a firearm control system that keeps the firearm normally-enabled for firing by an authorized user, and disables the firearm from firing only when the firearm is pointed in the direction of the authorized user either inadvertently by the authorized user or purposely by someone, such as an assailant, who has obtained unauthorized possession of the firearm.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a firearm control system that automatically disables a firearm when the firearm is in the hands of an unauthorized user.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a firearm control system that operates as a safety mechanism to prevent both accidental and unauthorized firing of a firearm.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a firearm control system that allows a firearm to be automatically disabled by the authorized user without any affirmative action on the part of the authorized user.
The above and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent when the following description is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.